


The Coruscant Trials

by lunicole



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Legal Drama, Non-Linear Narrative, Twine game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 23:03:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8819689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunicole/pseuds/lunicole
Summary: >Request for access to A://New_Republic_Legal_Database>Processing your request>Access granted>Opening The_Coruscant_Trials.dataTHE FILE WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY RELOADED AFTER COMPLETE CONSULTATION





	

**Author's Note:**

> So basically this is a Twine game I made to get familiar with the engine. It's meant to be played as a little text-based game, so I suggest doing that by clicking on the link at the start of this story, or by copy-pasting this (http://sd-2.archive-host.com/membres/up/13213075106508717/The_Coruscent_Trials.html) into your browser.
> 
> However, I did put a boring incomplete text version that you can read on AO3, if that's more your jam.

>Request for access to A://New_Republic_Legal_Database  
  
>Processing your request  
  
>Access granted  
  
>Opening [The_Coruscant_Trials.data](http://sd-2.archive-host.com/membres/up/13213075106508717/The_Coruscent_Trials.html)  
  
**THE FILE WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY RELOADED AFTER COMPLETE CONSULTATION**

 

 **I. The Coruscant Trials: Introduction**  
  
It was a beautiful day on Coruscant when the trial started. The air was crisp and clean from the restricted vehicle use put in place to ration fuel towards the war effort.  
  
The New Republic’s senate had moved back to the Imperial capital again, after the destruction of the Hosnian system and the years of exile during the war. It was not, however, the senate who would be in charge of judging the accused.There had never been any kind of large scale destruction resembling the reign of terror imposed by the followers of Snoke in the past, and, as some more optimistic observers commented, there could never be any in the future.  
  
A newly created high tribunal for war crimes committed by the First Order had been created specifically for the situation. 

**>**

 

 **II. The Coruscant Trials: The Accused**  
  
Of the remaining First Order commanders they had found, only a few had survived both the end of the war and the capture by Alliance soldiers. Snoke had been assassinated by one of his own subordinates, a low-ranking officer called Dopheld Mitaka, upon the destruction of the second Starkiller Base.  
  
The pearl of this great reaping that had come after the fall of the First Order had then become the General Hux, responsible of the construction of the Starkiller Bases and second in command of the First Order’s important military resources. While most contemporary military specialists would agree that his military tactics were, at best, completely theoretical, his taste for technological improvement, and his heavily-researched and effective use of propaganda had been invaluable in the rise of the First Order. No one had ever used psychological techniques to the same extent in training troops before, and Hux’s greatest accomplishment would go down in history as the creation of the modern stormtrooper.

**>**

 

 **III. The Coruscant Trials: The Capture of General Hux**  
  
General Hux, unlike Snoke, had managed to escape Naboo in one piece, probably, although the sources on that exact information differ, by disguising himself into a civilian and managing to reach the Outer Rim on a convoy of refugees. The sheer scale of disorder and panic following the galactic war had been large enough to allow him to pass controls without being recognised. His luck, however, had run out on Dagoba, where he'd been apprehended and captured by the former stormtrooper turned Alliance officer Finn.  


**>**

 

 **IV. The Coruscant Trials: Arrival of the Accused**  
  
It was a beautiful day on Coruscant when the trial started, and the captive officers defiled, in heavily guarded vehicles, on the landing strip leading to the former imperial palace, where the accusation and defense were to take place. The choice of the location was symbolic, as a mean to truly bury the imperial dream, and had been the object of much deliberation both within the senate and in the holosphere. The most radical opponents to the choice, Maz Kanata, a close friend of the now legendary Rey Skywalker, argued that it would only confirm the beliefs of those still nostalgic of the Empire, that the First Order was its spiritual and political heir.  
  
The physical appearance of Hux and his remaining associates had been much changed by years of hiding and captivity. If the General had once appeared as this imposing, rousing orator who had single-handedly destructed entire systems through the sheer power of his voice through endless holodiffusions broadcasted throughout the entire galaxy, the man that stood on the accused bench had lost the power to inspire raw terror by his simple presence. His characteristic red hair had been shaved very close to his head, and he wore civilian clothes that barely managed to hide how bony the already slim officer had become.

**>**

 

 **V. The Coruscant Trials: First Hearing**  
  
The records indicate that Hux stayed silent for most of the deliberations on the first day, unlike his colleague Phasma, stripped of her chrome armour, showing her angular, strikingly sharp features to the world for the first time.  
  
Hux’s lawyer, although somewhat discrete during the first hearing, merits an introduction given the pivotal role she was to play later on over the course of her defense of the most hated war criminal in recent history.

**>**

 

 **VI. The Coruscant Trials: The Pava Defence**  
  
Jessica Pava's reaction upon hearing the accusation was controlled, especially in contrast to Captain Phasma's vitriolic counter-accusations of the tribunal being first and foremost a political exercise to assert the victory of the Alliance, as opposed to its official stance of neutrality. Pava, just like her defendant, spoke as few words as possible, offering a face of quiet acknowledgement of the situation at hand.

**>**

 

 **VII. The Coruscant Trials: The Second Hearing**  
  
After the first hearing, the second day of the trial saw a change in the wind for both the accusers and the defendants. After the presentation of the accusations, the proofs concerning the crimes committed by the First Order were to be presented by the senatorial lawyers. The burden of proof remained, uncharacteristically given the then more liberal galactic judiciary system, upon the shoulders of the defendants given the scale of the crimes committed. Along with the very political nature of the trial pointed out by other defendants during the first day of the hearings, the Pava defence would make expert and novel use of this judiciary specificity, turning it into a powerful rhetorical weapon.  
  
  
It on that second day that solemn, silent General Hux really revealed himself, in hindsight, as the powerful propagandist he had been under the First Order. As numerous holocopies of his speeches, official addresses and classified military directives came before the jury, the accused seemed to exhibit sadness, which clashed with his colleague Captain Phasma, still boiling in rage with the same discontent she had showcased the day beforewith a snarl of disdain. His emaciated face gave gravity to his silence as the opposition’s lawyer, Ho-Yin Sakaba, gave the jury a heartfelt description of the death of billions of inhabitants of the Hosnian System. If Sakaba’s eloquence is without question, the single, glistening little tear it managed to drag out of the General’s eye and down the line of his cheek had more power than all the words the best lawyer of the galaxy could have said.  


**>**

 

 **VIII. The Coruscant Trials: Reflections on The Second Hearing**  
  
It is hard to determine if this show of contrition, just as the rest of the trial, were bound by genuine regret and pain over past actions or by the strategical cunning that had been, after all, a prime characteristic of the General in the galactic war. What interests us, however, is the influence that tear had on the entire trial. It is indeed possible to say that this was the turning point for the defense of both Hux and the rest of the First Order prisoners.  
  
The holosphere exploded with various commentaries on the subject matter, from all sides of the political spectrum, former sympathisers of the First Order against old guard members of the long dead Rebellion. The ground had been laid for a counterstrike that was to change the way of galactic law, and the course of history.

**>**

 

 **IX. The Coruscant Trials: Third and Final Hearing**  
  
The last hearing started on a somber note. Captain Phasma, although kept under close watch in a maximum security cell within the former Imperial Palace, had committed suicide. While it did cause quite a stir within the army of jurists and journalists who took care and reviewed the prosecution, the defence didn't exhibit any weakness under the pressure caused by this sudden change of events.  
  
Jessika Pava's defence's of the greatest war criminal of the century continued.

**>**

 

 **X. The Coruscant Trials: Admission of Guilt**  
  
It's notable to say that General Hux, upon the news of the death of a woman who had been his close collaborator for years, showed once more a face that he'd never presented to the world as the fearsome commander of Starkiller Base. It's hard to say if the contrition he exhibited, the nervousness of his whole demeanour several contemporary witnesses noted, both on the day of the trial and later on, was genuine or part of his defence strategy. The physical transformation he'd undergone helped; he was hardly recognisable, even more so in the prisonner's uniform he appeared in at court.  
  
It was a show, as everything the Pava Defence had been about, but it was proving to be incredibly efficient at changing the whole tone of te trial. As he was called on the witness stand, he stood up, and presented what would be the single most important piece of evidence in the entire history of galactic law.  


**>**

 

 **XI. The Coruscant Trials: Armitage's Hux Deposition**  
  
While the complete version of Armitage Hux's deposition on the third day of the trial remains, to this day, classified, it's possible, from witness accounts and various excepts that have been made available to the public, to present a summary of his last official speech before his execution.  
  
The brilliance of Jessika Pava's defense of General Hux was it's capacity to understand, from the very begining, the stakes at hand, and the unavoidability of execution that would follow. The war had killed too many people. It wasn't reason or galactic law that would sentence the accused to death; it was revenge. While it is up to speculation how aware General Hux was of Pava's strategy, it is to be noted that she was one of the last persons he saw before his execution. It is said that he thanked her for her help in way that could be nothing but genuine, considering the situation he was in.  
  
Hux, under Pava's questioning, revealed the inner-workings of the First Order, the endoctrination himself and most of the officers had been subjected to since birth. While there was plenty of room for the back-stabbing that had won him his position as leader of the Order, any form of disobedience to the Leader was unthinkable and swiftly punished. _Synergia_ use proved to be efficient in the process of keeping troops in line, along with  
  
The reason why General Hux had been able to build such an impressive training program for the First Order was because the methods he would later use in the creation of the modern Stormtrooper had first been tested on himself.

**>**

 

 **XII. The Coruscant Trials: Hux's Condemnation**  
  
General Armitage Hux was condemned to death for war crimes and crimes against the galaxy in 40 ABY, a few days after the end of the trial. The jury, composed of anonymous judges of the New Republic, seemingly remained divided on the condemnation for two days, before coming to a compromise which terms remain unclear even to this day.  
  
It is to be noted that it is in the wording of the sentence that the brilliance of the Pava defence truly shines. The New Republic acknowledged the precendent set by the fall of the Empire, and, to a certain point, the banality of evil it had engineered within the First Order. Commentators and protestors would, however, see the cracks in the logic of the official argument, especially given the scale of the destruction caused by the Resistance in the final years of the war.  
  
Upon hearing his sentence, General Hux, as his lawyer who had so dutifully prepared his defence, remained calm. He made no final statement in front of the jury, and was escorted to his cell to wait for execution.

**>**

 

 **XIII. The Coruscant Trials: Hux's Execution**  
  
General Armitage Hux of the First Order was executed on the morning following his official condemnation. He asked for a cup of black coffee as his last meal, which he drank with his lawyer, who'd come to see him before his execution. Hux requested to be executed by a firing squad, an antiquated but legal option available at the time.  
  
Jessika Pava, in later sources, remembers asking him why he'd chosen this option, and declares:  
  
_"When asked about his reasons [for choosing the firing squad as a mode of execution], he gave me one of these very cold, very dry laughs I'd come to learn, through our work together, was a sign of slight irritation. 'It's what Father would have wanted', he'd told me as he finished his coffee and prepared to leave"_  
  
He was taken to the execution chamber at noon. When asked for his last words, it is said that he smiled.  
  
"Tell Lord Ren that in the end, only one of us really died for the Order."

 

**CONSULTATION OF "The_Coruscant_Trials.data" COMPLETE**

**< <**


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